Saturday, November 3, 2007

General Pervez Musharraf announced a State of Emeregency today at 6:30 pm. The decision is believed came just before the Supreme Court's announcement on the legality of the President's election held on October 2007. Musharraf won the election . However the Supreme Court postponed the results until it decides on the case against the legibility of the cases filed against President Musharraf to hold two offices at a time. According to the constitution of Pakistan and the services act, no government official is allowed to keep two offices at a time, the rule also says that there should be a period of 2 years before any official can take an executive office.

Sources said that President General Pervez Musharraf is likely to address to the nation tonight in this regard. he is expected to state the resons for the emergency. The recent terrorist boomings and suicidal attacks can be some of the reasons for this emergency.

There are reports that the transmission of the private television channels have been terminated in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Although the ban on television channels has been a usual tactic for such actions, the media can still play the role of a catalyst in this to modify the public sentiments.

The interersting development for Pakistan is that the State of Emergency proclaimed states that the officies of the Prime Minister, teh Cabinet, Chief Ministers and their respective provincial cabinets are still entact. This is quite an unusual situation, where the current parliament with the PM was supposed to cease after 15 November 2007.

What Pakistan needs now most is a peace, stability and enlightened moderation. Mushrraf has promised this to the world since he came into power and later joined the so called US war on terror.

Although Pakistan has been successful in keeping its economic growth program at an impressive 7% per annum. Consistency and continuity in policies are required to keep this progress. However it will be interesting to see the reaction of Musharraf's allies on this.